40 injured as Iran plane catches fire

Iranian firefighters work on a burned Iranian passenger plane after it crash landed at Mashhad airport, northeastern Iran. (AP)

By

Reuters

PublishedMonday, January 25, 2010

At least 40 Iranians were injured when a Russian-made Tupolev aircraft caught fire as it landed in northeastern Iran yesterday.

"About 42 passengers, out of 157 aboard, were injured when the plane was landing at Mashhad city's airport," said Gholamreza Massoumi, head of Iran's emergency medical services.

There were no fatalities, said Iran's civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh.

The official Irna news agency said the incident occurred when the rear end of the plane, which belonged to Iran's domestic Taban Airliner, caught fire while landing.

The cause of the incident was being investigated, Irna said.

In the worst plane crash in Iran in the past six years, a Tupolev aircraft crashed in 2009 in Iran on its way to Armenia, after catching fire mid-air and crashing into farmland killing all 168 people on board.

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